Citi and Network International have entered into a referral agreement that sees the former offer payment solutions to the bank’s corporate clients.
Only affecting the bank’s clients in the Middle East and Africa (MEA), Network International will leverage its payment platform to improve several aspects of Citi’s corporate clients’ payment management solutions.
In particular, the arrangement aims to enhance transaction efficiency, increase security and seamless payment integration capabilities to help the bank digitise and streamline its payment processes.
Vivek Vaidyanathan, Citi Treasury & Trade Solutions Head, Middle East & Pakistan, commented: “We are pleased to announce a new referral arrangement with Network International, reinforcing our commitment to investing in our capabilities in the UAE and the region.
“As clients’ business models evolve and the need for digital collections solutions takes centre stage, this collaboration perfectly aligns with our strategy to provide solutions to our clients. By collaborating with a leading regional player such as Network International, we are able to offer seamless market-relevant payment experiences thereby helping businesses to optimise their marketplace payments, business-to-business and direct-to-consumer transaction flows”.
Founded in the UAE as a payments subsidiary of Emirates Bank, Network International provides technology-enabled payments as a service to merchants and financial institutions in the MEA.
Jamal Al Nassai, Group Managing Director of Merchant Services at Network International, said: “We are pleased to enter a referral arrangement with Citi to provide omni-channel payment acceptance solutions to large enterprise customers of Citi across the MEA region.
“This collaboration is a testament of the trust that Citi has in our payment platform which offers wide variety of payment methods along with highest levels of security and convenience.
“We are confident that this referral arrangement will enable Citi to provide more comprehensive corporate banking services to their valued clients, while enabling Network to strengthen its leadership in the digital payments landscape in MEA region.”
So far this year, there have been several payment partnerships in the MEA. In January, Mastercard collaborated with the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) to boost digital payment adoption for Small and Medium Enterprises across the region.
